An episode of talking, talking and more talking by people we barely know or care about.
I guess Pixis’ speech was supposed to be inspirational. Like last week’s speech by Armin, the creators did their best to make it as epic as possible. Shouting from the top of a giant wall, facial closeups, bulging eyes, et. cetera et. cetera. But while Armin’s speech worked, Pixis’ falls flat. It’s a combination of the facts that a) the content of his speech is pretty standard, go fight or we’re all screwed military talk, and b) we just don’t know Pixis well enough at this point.
Pixis is supposed to be some badass crazy man, but so far all we’ve seen him do is talk and be less crazy than his men in not wanting to execute people all the time. The creators seem to want to imply that he’s some half-insane, crazy badass. But what have we seen him do to support this thus far? Absolutely nothing. Unless you want to include smoozing and boozing with some dumb merchant and leaving when the Titans showed up. Not exactly the most compelling testimony to his badassery.
The second speech, made by the random grey haired assistant to the previous episode’s crazy guy, is even worse. No pressure, dude. But if you screw up it’s your fault that everyone will die. Even though we ordered you to do this despite the fact that we know you have no idea if you can or not.
Eren’s reactions are the most annoying part of the episode though. “I must become a symbol of hope for everyone!” *Barf* What made the initial episodes of Shingeki no Kyojin so unique were the dark setting and the fact that there are no heroes. I sincerely hope the show doesn’t converge to a more typical shounen show. It reminds me of the Berserk manga at this point. It was awesome at first, with Guts killing / getting killed by disgusting monsters all the time. Then suddenly the main character is a cute little girl and Guts becomes a lolicon.
War, War, What is it Good For
We’ve seen this idea in anime before, *cough cough* Code Geass *cough cough* plus what I thought was many other shows that I can’t seem to recall at the moment.
Shingeki no Kyojin takes this idea to its logical conclusion. A war to end war never works. Even Eren can see that.
The old fart talked a lot. But he himself stay within the safety, on top of the walls, while his soldiers go accompany Eren, and the rest of them become Titan’s bait. If he is really a badass, he should have gone with Eren’s team. I wonder why his speech worked, can’t the lowly soldiers see how egoistic their leader is?
Everybody jumped unto the hype train, until it crashes and carry them to the pit of hell.
If…. say Girls Und Panzer received even a quarter of the hype that SnK ot SAO received, I don’t think it would have been as well regarded either….
I think shows with Dark horse potential are the ones to watch for here. Still, SnK does a better job at trying to fulfil hype than some other animes of recent memory…
Probably true. I still think Shingeki no Kyojin is a great show, just disappointed in this episode. Hopefully it will pick up again. The higher the expectations are, the harder it is to meet them. Other shows have failed much worse than Titan *cough cough* Guilty Crown *cough cough*.
Funnily enough, the director and music composer for SnK are the same people who directed and composed music for Guilty Crown. The director’s known for making shows like Death Note and Highschool of the Dead as well, and I certainly see similar styles in this show.
Ah, there are definitely similarities, especially with the super dramatic way things are presented and the facial closeups in Death Note. I don’t think this can possibly turn out as bad as Guilty Crown at this point, fortunately…
Exactly. What has he actually done? Jacksquat.
Drinking Booze.
He’s the general, general’s don’t fight. He’s in charge of protecting thousands of lives, it would be irresponsible of him to do anything that could get him killed.
Are you mixing up general with king? I have played a lot of RoTK, and generals are always in the front line! In all Japanese warlords stories I have seen/read, generals are always in the front line! When a general is nothing but all talk, the moral of the whole army will plummet and go down the drain. And you already lose the war before it even starts.
I have read the manga until latest chapter, never once this Pixis goes to fight himself. He is, just like what draggle said, a cheap talk old man.
The writer already made a rather obvious comparison to make it obvious the difference Pixis makes. The comparison is of course to the cowardly captain. I’ll point it out straight.
i) Pixis can immediately see the strategic use of Eren and that he poses little threat if he goes rouge. 1 titan (Eren) that runs amok alone without backup is easily killed but 1 titan on the human’s side can open new venues of strategy simply by his size and strength as this episode’s plan showed. On the other hand, the captain sees nothing further than his hand can reach and does incredibly moronic things.
ii) Pixis’ response to the mutiny was the most effective method. He did not attempt intimidation, as the captain did, but cut into the heart of the problem by making people decide if they wanted to let their families get eaten or die trying to stop it. He then further spelt out that they and their families would still get sent out to die as per wall rose’s incident even if they managed to get into wall sina. This is a 2 part appeal. First is using their loved ones (wall breached and they get eaten), then he is appealing to their sense of self preservation (starvation or sent to die). If he used intimidation, it would have exploded into an all out battle
iii) He continue to project an image of calm. Might be fake but it does not matter. People in fear need someone who seems to have a handle on things. If your commander looks and sounds just as frightened as you, would you lessen your fear?
Is Pixis a great giant killer? Who knows but being a military leader does not require you to be the best at fighting.
See, my problem with this is that making Pixis look good by comparing him to the captain doesn’t work because the captain is a complete moron. Seriously, I could be a better commander than that captain. To impress the audience with how great Pixis is, what they need to do is have him one-up someone who is actually competent.
By the way, that scene with Pixis and the noble wasn’t in the manga, it was made for the anime to fill time and give Pixis an introduction. And he doesn’t run away when the titans show up, he runs ‘towards’ Trost, he was really far away from Trost when they attacked.
Oh I know he ran towards the giants, I just meant he left the nobleman’s house. Interesting to hear that scene wasn’t in the manga. I can only imagine his introduction in the manga was even less effective.
You know, it took me four attempts to get through this eposode. I can honestly say that at this point, Shingeki has slid down a few rungs on my ladder for this spring. I would rather have watched Bleach fillers tgan this episode.
This so called “defense of Trost” will probably drags for 10 episode…
I wouldn’t go nearly as far as Bleach fillers… but yes, I’m certainly not as enthusiastic anymore as I was when this started.
Sorry to break your bubble but this is the beginning of the end of everything you liked about the show. I wont spoil you with specific examples, but the explanations and clutter will in another ten episodes rival code geass. This is supposed to be the mangakas first story and it will show in season two.
Well, I did like Code Geass… so maybe there is hope for me yet.
I like Code Geass, and I don’t see how they are similar. How could you compare pipsqueak Eren with my husbando Lelouch? Blasphemy!
😀